CVS Health (NYSE:CVS) Shares Up 2.7% on Analyst Upgrade

CVS Health Co. (NYSE:CVS)’s share price shot up 2.7% during mid-day trading on Monday after Evercore ISI raised their price target on the stock from $60.00 to $65.00. Evercore ISI currently has an outperform rating on the stock. CVS Health traded as high as $56.77 and last traded at $56.04. 3,148,189 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 76% from the average session volume of 13,225,995 shares. The stock had previously closed at $54.55.

Several other research analysts also recently weighed in on CVS. Piper Sandler cut their price target on CVS Health from $72.00 to $64.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, November 25th. TD Cowen increased their target price on CVS Health from $73.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, November 25th. Truist Financial lowered their price target on CVS Health from $67.00 to $60.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, January 6th. UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of CVS Health from $60.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of CVS Health from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $68.12.

Institutional Trading of CVS Health

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in CVS. Assetmark Inc. boosted its holdings in CVS Health by 9.7% in the third quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 410,001 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $25,781,000 after purchasing an additional 36,132 shares during the last quarter. TD Private Client Wealth LLC boosted its stake in shares of CVS Health by 28.7% during the 3rd quarter. TD Private Client Wealth LLC now owns 46,938 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $2,951,000 after buying an additional 10,465 shares during the last quarter. Cullinan Associates Inc. increased its stake in shares of CVS Health by 43.8% in the third quarter. Cullinan Associates Inc. now owns 122,682 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $7,125,000 after buying an additional 37,395 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its holdings in CVS Health by 4.8% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,434,476 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $90,200,000 after acquiring an additional 66,244 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sompo Asset Management Co. Ltd. boosted its stake in CVS Health by 8.4% during the 3rd quarter. Sompo Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 134,523 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $8,459,000 after acquiring an additional 10,453 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.66% of the company’s stock.

CVS Health Stock Performance

The company has a market capitalization of $70.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.18, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.80 and a beta of 0.59. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $51.24 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $56.20. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.80, a quick ratio of 0.59 and a current ratio of 0.80.

CVS Health (NYSE:CVS) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 6th. The pharmacy operator reported $1.09 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.08 by $0.01. CVS Health had a return on equity of 10.72% and a net margin of 1.36%. The firm had revenue of $95.43 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $92.72 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.21 earnings per share. CVS Health’s quarterly revenue was up 6.3% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts predict that CVS Health Co. will post 5.22 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

CVS Health Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 3rd. Investors of record on Thursday, January 23rd will be given a dividend of $0.665 per share. This represents a $2.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.78%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 23rd. CVS Health’s dividend payout ratio is presently 67.51%.

About CVS Health

CVS Health Corporation provides health solutions in the United States. It operates through Health Care Benefits, Health Services, and Pharmacy & Consumer Wellness segments. The Health Care Benefits segment offers traditional, voluntary, and consumer-directed health insurance products and related services.